Fragile
by HMSSparky
Summary: Rose was alone, and frightened, so it isn't much of a surprise that she took up the first offer of company out of her infected village. If only her companions weren't able to kill her at any moment.
1. Chapter 1

I clamped my lips shut and stared straight ahead of me, in the hopes that it would stop me crying. It was cold, and all I wanted to do was hug my arms close to my chest but I couldn't. The jacket I was wearing, that I'd taken from some poor, unfortunate man who'd failed to fight off an infected, was practically soaked in blood. But it was all I had keeping me warm. I'd left home that morning, when it was sunny, wearing shorts, a tank top and a pair of flimsy sandals, because I didn't expect an apocalypse to break out while I went to the shops.

I forced myself to carrying on walking forwards. When the infection reached my small village, I'd rushed back to my house and locked myself in the bathroom, waiting for it all to go away. When I thought back to it, I couldn't believe how stupid I'd been. I waited for hours, and when it was completely silent outside, I left, and so had everyone else. I was alone.

I assumed they had all evacuated to the city to find help. I didn't know what to do. I had no means of transportation, apart from walking, but the nearest city was a good few miles away. So instead of going back to my house, like a normal person would, I started walking. It seemed like most people had managed to escape, but there were some unlucky people who hadn't, and were lying dead on the floor, with their killers next to them. I don't know what had killed them, people who were fleeing, I guessed.

I jumped when I heard a noise. It had been mostly silent, with only the wind and the sound of my sandals slapping against the stone pavement. I quickly realised that it was the sound of a mobile phone ringing. I looked around, and saw the faint glow of it in someone's hand. I ran over to it and answered the call.

"Oh my god, Nate, you're okay. I went to your house but you weren't there, have you already gone? Look, I'm at a service station not too far from Terthshire, where are you? I'll see if I can get the others to come pick you up. Nate why aren't you saying anything?" The woman on the other end of the phone gabbled at me.

"I'm sorry, but Nate's dead," I said in a small voice. The woman gasped.

"What? Are you sure? Oh no, no, no this can't be happening." She started crying.

"I'm still in Terthshire, and I need help, my name's Rose, please can you help me?" I asked quickly, but the phone call was terminated before I could finish speaking. I tried redialling the number, but she didn't answer, and I got so frustrated with the phone's touch screen that I smashed it against a wall. I wondered what I was going to do then. I had no option really, I had to keep walking.

I soon became so tired that it was a great effort to put one foot in front of the other. I had to sleep, if only for a few hours. I stumbled over to the nearest house and tried opening the door, and of course it wasn't locked. I would've been surprised if it had been. I walked inside and turned on all the lights inside the house. I used the bathroom, having a quick wash as I sensed it would be my last opportunity for a while.

I went into the kitchen and saw that most of the food had been taken; all that was left was some fruit in a bowl and ice cream in the freezer. I took all of this up with me to the bedroom and sat down on the bed, taking my jacket off and throwing it aside. I decided to have a look in the wardrobe, and the clothes inside it were all much too big for me, but I did take a clean jacket. I ate all of the food and then lay down on top of the blankets and tried to get some sleep.

I was unbelievably tired, but I was so on edge that I couldn't sleep. Every little noise from outside, a gust of wind, the patter of rain against the window, kept me up. Even the sound of myself breathing unnerved me. I looked at the clock on the bedside table next to me. It was half past three in the morning. It was winter, so it wouldn't be light until about eight o'clock. I didn't know what scared me more, the darkness, or the feeling of vulnerability I was getting from just thinking about sleeping.

I somehow managed to sleep, only for an hour, but it was something. I left the house and continued walking. It was still dark, and I still didn't feel any better, but I didn't have much choice. I was nearing the outskirts of the village, and coming closer to the next village. I wondered what the situation was there, the infection would have had to through to get to my village, and after seeing how rapidly it had decimated it, it was likely similar.

I got distracted by a scream that came from behind me. I turned around, but there was nothing there. I began to think I might be hearing things, and I turned back around only to see someone standing in front of me. Something would be more accurate, as this thing was not human, it couldn't have been.

It was tall, about a foot taller than I was, it had tumour like growths surrounding its left eye, and tongues protruding from several places. I backed away from it, and bumped into something else. I didn't turn to look at it, I was frozen by fear.

"Are you unarmed?" The thing in front of me asked, in a surprisingly normal voice. I nodded slowly, but the thing behind me still stuck its hands into the pockets of my jacket, and my shorts. I caught a glimpse of its hands, which appeared to have claws rather than fingers.

"Come with us," it said, the one in front of me. The one behind me pinned my arms back and urged me forward. I walked as it told me to, my heart beating fast and hard. What were they going to with me? Dozens of sick and twisted images crept into my mind, and as I was marched into a house, I couldn't help but let a tear roll down my cheek.

"You can let her go, Hunter, but lock the door," the tall one instructed the other. So the other was called Hunter. I remembered one of the more heavily mutated infected being called that on the news.

"What do you want with me?" I asked, in a high pitched, strained voice as I tried not to cry. The tall one half smiled, and sat down on a sofa and put its feet up the coffee table, followed by Hunter.

"You're going to help us. Name's Cyrus, and that's Hunter, and you?" It sounded so casual, as if this was an everyday conversation.

"I'm Rose. How can I help you?" I replied.

"I'm guessing you've noticed we ain't like all the other special infected. Nah, they're all mindless killers who're doing it for the fun of it. The strain of the infection we got only gave us the physical changes, but mentally, we're the same as we were before. But all these military people don't see it that way, we've gone to a few evac spots and they've just tried to shoot us sight. What we need is someone not infected, like you. You're going to convince 'em to take us as well," Cyrus explained.

"Okay. I'll help you," I said. I could see that no wasn't an answer, as they could easily kill me.

"That's what I was hoping to hear, and don't worry, we'll protect you on the way. Most infected won't even look twice if you're around us," Cyrus stood up and extended a hand. I shook it gingerly, as it was covered in boils.

"Why is that?" I asked.

"Because they won't smell you. You non infected have a unique smell, and if your stick close to us, we'll mask it. Hunter, go get her the clothes we put away." Cyrus clicked his fingers. Hunter stood up and went upstairs and came back a few minutes later with an armful of clothes. He dropped them on the floor in front of me.

"What are these for?" I tilted my head to one side. Had they been expecting me?

"For you to wear, doll face. They'll help disguise your scent." He winked at me. I smiled slightly. I picked some things up and ran off to get changed. I looked at myself in a mirror, and ran a hand through my dark hair. This wasn't how I expected things to happen, but I had somewhere to go, and I had someone to protect me. At least I hoped so.

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><p><strong>I've been working on trying to get this right for a while now, the first draft of this wasn't very good, and then I kept changing plot points, but I think I'm finally happy with it. <strong>

**For a little background: I'm pretty sure Terthshire is fictional, and this story is set in the UK.**

**I hope you guys enjoy it, and tell me what you think of it.**


	2. Chapter 2

"Right, we'd better start walking, we've got a lot of ground to cover," Cyrus said and walked towards the door. He opened it and I groaned loudly. "Come on sunshine, I ain't carrying you and I think Hunter over there'd drop you."

"I'm not that clumsy," Hunter muttered and stomped out the door, tripping as he did. I snorted with laughter and he turned his head towards me, so I clamped my hand over my mouth to stop myself.

"It's still dark out," I said quietly as we began our long journey. Cyrus put his arm around my shoulders and I tensed up.

"Don't worry, we'll look after you." Cyrus smiled. Something about what he said and the way he said it unnerved me. I shrugged my shoulders and he took his arm away. Hunter kept turning his head in my direction. I wasn't quite sure if he could actually see, he had his hood pulled over his eyes. I stopped and bent down, as if tying my shoelaces, and while I was doing that I looked up at Hunter. He didn't seem to have eyes. The area around them was red, with blood I assumed.

"Hunter, what happened to your eyes?" I asked delicately once I'd stood up and we'd resumed walking. He looked away from me and I gently put my hand on his shoulder. "Sorry, I didn't mean to upset you."

"He's fine, and yeah, he can see sort of. It's just that he thinks it makes him look hideous. He should trying looking like me." Cyrus reached past me and poked Hunter. "Stop being such a softie."

"Shut up," Hunter said moodily.

Cyrus rolled his eye at me and said, "aw come on Hunter, you know you're a stunner and so do the ladies." He nodded at me.

"Oh yes definitely." I smiled broadly at Hunter who looked up at me. I'm sure he knew that I was only saying it to make him feel better, but he appreciated it all the same. I then had a thought. "Where are we actually going?" I asked.

"The coast. We're going to get on a boat, I hate helicopters," Cyrus said.

"But that's like two or three hours away by car!" I exclaimed.

"Pick up the pace then. Should take us about a week or so." He slapped me on the back and grinned. Walking was my most hated thing, but at least I had some suitable foot wear. I looked down at the scuffed trainers I was wearing. I wondered who they'd belonged to before; they were probably dead now anyway.

Hunter nudged me with his elbow. "How old are you?" he asked.

"Twenty three, why did you want to know that?" I replied suspiciously. His grey skin flushed red.

"Oh, you just look a lot younger, that's all. I didn't mean anything by it," he stammered. I smiled reassuringly at him, and Cyrus sighed.

"Ignore him, he's an idiot," Cyrus whispered to me.

"No, he isn't," I said. Cyrus raised an eyebrow at me.

"Wait 'til you get to know him, then you'll think differently." He stopped walking, and so did Hunter. I had walked ahead of them, but paused when I realised they weren't next to me. I swivelled around to look at them.

"What is it?" I asked.

"Tank." Cyrus's eye widened.

"We have to get somewhere safer, indoors." Hunter looked around frantically.

"How about that house over there?" I suggested, pointing in its direction.

"It'll do." Cyrus grabbed hold of my shoulders and pulled me close to him. Hunter stood in front of us, so that he was nearly touching me, and we walked towards it. I was scared, even though I didn't know what a Tank was, but Cyrus and Hunter's fear was enough to tell me that I should be. We reached the house; Hunter forced the door open by bashing his shoulder against it, even though it was most likely unlocked, and Cyrus pushed me in with such a force that I fell onto my face.

"What's a Tank?" I stood up and put my hands on my hips. I moved out of the way of the door when Hunter started pushing a table to block it. I went into the dining room and picked up one of the chairs, which was heavier than I thought, and put it on top of the table, with some help from Cyrus. Once we were done, I asked my question again.

"Something that'll try and kill you if it knows you're here. And it won't stop until either you or it is dead," Cyrus told me. I gave a small gasp and looked at the two of them for help. "But don't worry, we'll look after you."

"So when can we leave?" I cupped my elbows with my hands.

"When it goes away or dies. Those things die if they don't kill something; we shouldn't be waiting too long." Cyrus squeezed my shoulder. I could now hear a noise in the distance. An angry yelling, that seemed to be coming closer. Cyrus went to look around the house, and came back with a bottle with a rag in it, as well as a lighter.

"Why have you got that?" I asked.

"It's a Molotov, in case that Tank comes after us, I just light it and throw it and it'll catch on fire and burn to death," he explained. The Tank was definitely coming closer, it sounded like it was only a minute away from us. Hunter stood in front of me, his arm across my chest and he walked backwards up the stairs and so did I. Cyrus flicked the lighter on and off nervously and followed us.

The Tank was right outside, and it started pounding on the door. We were stood at the top of the stairs, watching as it effortlessly smashed the door down and pushed out barricade out of the way. The Tank was truly a terrifying thing, so tall it had to break down part of the wall above the door to get in, and its muscles had grown enormously. It had so much muscle on its upper half that it had to walk using its knuckles. It bounded towards us, and Cyrus lit the rag of the Molotov on fire and hurled it at the Tank. It burst into flames, and the Tank was soon enveloped, but it didn't even flinch.

Hunter grabbed my hand and pulled me to the window at the end of the corridor. He smashed the window and wrapped my arms his waist. I held on tightly as he leapt out the window, onto a nearby van and then onto the roof of the next house. Cyrus dropped out the window and pressed himself up against the wall. The Tank broke the wall down, still on fire, yelling in a mixture of pain and anger.

The Tank climbed onto the van, and I suddenly felt something wrap around me and pull me off the roof. I looked down and saw that it was a tongue, and it belonged to Cyrus. He bit his tongue off and removed it from me. He seized my hand and ran down the street, dragging me along with him. We were faster than the Tank, which still didn't seem to care that it was burning to death. Hunter caught up with us, and pushed me to the side, just out of the way of a slab of pavement the Tank had thrown.

Further up the street was a roadblock. We were trapped. I tried to run, but Cyrus was holding me too tightly. He and Hunter were standing still now, as the Tank ran at us, a towering inferno. I screwed my eyes shut and pressed my head against Cyrus's shoulder. The yells suddenly stopped. I cautiously opened one eye and saw the Tank, a few feet in front of us, lying on the ground, dead.

"How did you know that it would die?" I asked. Cyrus smiled nervously at me.

"I didn't. I mean, I knew it'd die soon, just not exactly when." He breathed out heavily and let go of my hand, flexing his fingers.

"Shall we carry on walking?" I put a smile on my face. Cyrus stared at me, and laughed.

"Yeah alright," he said, and playfully punched Hunter on the arm, "let's go, springy."

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><p><strong>I still have no idea what kind of accent Cyrus has, I know that he has one, just not which one.<strong>

**But anyway, I hope you guys like and tell me what you think of it.**


	3. Chapter 3

I tried to stay positive about the whole thing, but after two hours of walking I was beginning to wish the Tank had got me. I was very thirsty, but we'd left the village and I knew neither of them would want to go back. Cyrus didn't seem to be enjoying it either, as he was breathing heavily. Hunter was completely fine, however.

"How much longer?" I whined and stopped so I could sit down on the floor and take my shoes off which were rubbing uncomfortably on my heel.

"Thirty minutes, maybe, until we reach the next town." Cyrus sighed. It was cold, yet both of us were still sweating. I tensed at the sound of a gunshot. Then I realised what it meant, it meant there were other people, survivors. I jumped up, grabbed my shoes and started running towards it.

"Rose, what are you doing?" Hunter shouted, and started running after me, followed by Cyrus.

"They could help us," I yelled back. I spotted four people in the middle of a field and sprinted at them, tripping over but I hauled myself off the ground. I waved my arms at them, and they noticed me. Then a bullet flew past me.

"Get over here quickly!" one of them called to me. I fell over at their feet, and they helped me off the ground. I saw what they were shooting at, and I saw Hunter leaping about wildly.

"No stop, don't shoot him." I knocked the gun out of their hand. The other three lowered their guns, but still watched Hunter carefully.

"That's a zombie, it's going to kill you," they said, as if I hadn't noticed. She pressed a pistol into my hand. "You're going to need this."

"He won't kill me, he's my friend." I shook my head and gave her the gun back.

She looked at me like I was mad. "It's a zombie, now let us kill it and you can come with us," she said and looked through the scope of her sniper rifle. I covered my eyes with my hands, and felt a tap on my shoulder.

"You going to ask them for help yet," Cyrus whispered in my ear. The four people whipped around and raised their guns. Cyrus put his hands in the air and smiled.

"He's my other friend." I stood in front of him protectively.

"We're not traveling with a zombie. Good luck," the girl said and the four of them walked away. Cyrus put his hands on my shoulders.

"It's better it being just us three," he said. We carried on walking, Hunter joining us when we reached him. I put my hands in the pockets of my jacket and looked down at the floor as we walked. I liked Cyrus and Hunter, but I couldn't help being somewhat scared of them. That girl was right in some respects, they were zombies and they could kill me. It was hard to remember when I looked at them that they were normal people.

We reached the next town, and Cyrus suggested that we rest somewhere, pretending it was for my sake. The house we chose was locked, which was odd, but once Hunter had broken a window and we climbed through we could see that there was no one in the house.

"What time is it?" I asked and sat down on the white leather sofa. It was strange, I was breaking into people's houses yet it didn't matter.

"Half past two." Cyrus flopped down onto one of the chairs, and Hunter sat with me, on the far end of the sofa. I patted the space next to me and smiled. He drummed his fingers on his knee and shook his head.

"Come on, I don't bite." I playfully bit the air. Hunter shook his head again and then looked away from me.

"You don't? That's a shame." Cyrus grinned. I laughed, hoping he was just joking. But the look his eye indicated otherwise.

"So, uh, how do you two know each other?" I tried to change the subject.

"Well me and Hunter were sort of friends before, never really that close. He was just that little kid who would hang around with me and my mates," Cyrus said.

"I'm older than you," Hunter interrupted.

"You're like a whole foot shorter than me and you giggle whenever you hear the number sixty nine, you're a kid. Anyway, the day the infection hit we bumped into each other and started to turn at same time, together. And when we realised we were still normal, we decided that we weren't going to find anyone else, so we thought we'd just stick together," Cyrus finished explaining.

I wished I'd known the two of them before the infection. Then we probably could've been friends. Maybe more than that.

"I think I might go and get some sleep. Could you wake me up in a few hours?" I said and went upstairs. I pushed open the door to one of the bedrooms and when I saw the large, soft double bed, I jumped onto it and rolled off, it was so springy. I was quite tired, and couldn't be bothered to get up off the floor. The bedroom was right above the living, and I pressed my ear to the floor to listen to Cyrus and Hunter talking.

"Why do you keep flirting with her, she's obviously not interested," Hunter said to Cyrus.

"Just because you're not confident doesn't mean that no one else is. It's a bit of fun," Cyrus replied.

There was a pause before Hunter spoke again. "Cyrus, do you really think we'll be evacuated?"

"Why wouldn't we be? We're still sane, so they've got to help us."

"But we're infected."

"Shut up Hunter," Cyrus said sharply. I sat upright and leant against the wall, had they dragged me along with them without even knowing if their plan would work? What would happen to me if it didn't? I doubted whoever was running the evacuation process would be pleased with me bringing along two infected, even if I managed to convince them they were friendly.

I climbed up onto the bed and lay down, looking up at the ceiling. I closed my eyes, and soon fell asleep, dreaming of the many possibilities on how our journey would end.

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><p><strong>I would've had this chapter out yesterday, but I had to go to sleep because I'm back in school now. I don't know how this will affect my writing of this story, but hopefully it won't be too much. Also, later on in this story there will be minor romantic elements, but not enough to count as a whole genre.<strong>

**I hope you guys enjoy this chapter, and tell me what you think.**


	4. Chapter 4

It was dark when I woke up, and I was sure that when I'd gone to sleep it was still quite early in the afternoon. I swung my legs over the edge of the bed and looked to the bedroom door, which was open. I couldn't remember if I'd closed it or not, so I didn't think much of it. I left the room and bumped into Hunter in the hallway.

"Why didn't you wake me?" I yawned and stretched my arms out.

"Cyrus told me that you said you want more sleep. I was just going to wake you up now," he said. I shrugged my shoulders and we walked down the stairs together. Cyrus was waiting at the bottom, leaning against the wall with his arms folded.

"Come on then, time to get moving." Cyrus linked his arm with mine. I didn't whether or not to pull away, but he looked so cheerful that I just couldn't. Hunter looked left out so I hooked my arm with his and all three of us left the house and continued walking down street, joined together.

I'd thought it had been cold during the day, but at night it was positively freezing. I felt most sorry for Cyrus, who had a short sleeved t-shirt on whereas Hunter and I both had jackets. I knew that the jacket I was wearing belonged to him, it was way too big for me and Hunter, and I had to assume that they didn't take it from someone else. I wondered about giving it to him, but then I would have been cold, so I didn't.

Cyrus stood rather close to me, while Hunter kept his distance, like usual. It was strange how quickly I was growing fond of them, but I suppose the alternative would have been being terrified of them. We had unlinked arms by then, and I noticed that Hunter kept glancing over at me and Cyrus.

"Hunter, are you okay?" I asked softly. He seemed caught off guard by my question.

"Sure, what makes you think I'm not?" he gabbled. I smiled, and so did he, nervously.

"Do you two sleep?" I changed the subject.

"Yeah, we both had a couple of hours when you were sleeping," Cyrus said and stretched one of his arms out.

"What about dreaming? I had a really weird dream, I was swimming around in coffee and I was being chased by a shark made of tinfoil. In order to kill it I had to get a tub of boiling hot custard from the bottom of the cup and tip it over the shark, but then it suddenly turned into my ex-boyfriend Noah. So I poured more custard over him." I gestured enthusiastically. Cyrus looked at me weirdly, but Hunter laughed.

"Your ex, huh? What was he like?" Cyrus asked, raising an eyebrow.

"He was alright at first, with a few little quirks. Like he wanted me to text him every hour so he could know I was okay. Then I realised that he was trying to control my life, and I wouldn't play along with him so he broke up with me and stole my cat," I said. Hunter snorted with laughter, and then looked to me, smiling when I did.

"Any others?" Cyrus inquired casually.

"No, not really." I sighed. I heard my name being called, and I only saw who it was when they suddenly threw their arms around my neck.

"Rose, it really is you," Noah said, and stroked my hair. I mouthed the word "help" to Cyrus, who pulled Noah away from me.

"And what do you want, Noah?" Cyrus smirked at the look of confusion on Noah's face.

"I came here for my girlfriend. To rescue her. Oh Rose, I was worried you'd be infected when I found you, but you're not. You're still just as beautiful." Noah caressed my face. I swatted his hand away but he just smiled fondly at me.

"I don't need rescuing," I said, "wait, how did you find me?"

Noah held up his phone, on the screen was a map and he pointed to the red blip and said, "The tracking device, of course."

"Okay psycho, you be on your way now, she doesn't want you around." Cyrus took the phone out of his hands.

"Why don't you mind your business and run along now, huh zombie?" Noah put his hands on his hips. Cyrus crushed the phone in his hand and dropped it on the floor.

"I'm not a zombie." Cyrus clenched his fists.

"Well you're not human, are you?" Noah stepped closer.

"Guys, stop it." I tried to interrupt, but they ignored me. Noah reached into his pocket and pulled out a pistol. I was surprised when Hunter pounced onto Noah, pinning him to the ground and knocking the gun out of his hand.

"Get off me!" Noah yelled. I could hear another yelling as well. Hunter hauled Noah off the floor and pushed him further into the road, right into the path of an infected that charged into him and carried him away. It crashed into the first building in its way and smashed Noah against the wall. Hunter and Cyrus both grabbed one of my hands and we ran. I looked over my shoulder to see that Noah was still being slammed into the wall, so much that there was a large dent in it.

"What was that?" I asked, panting once we'd stopped running.

"A Charger. I heard it yelling, and we had to get rid of him," Hunter said.

"I don't normally say this, but thanks Hunter. You actually saved me." Cyrus clapped Hunter on the back. Hunter smiled, and then they turned to me and paused.

"Thank you, both of you. I really didn't think he'd just appear like that. I don't even know how he managed to place a tracking device on me." I forced a smile on my face and trying to hide the fact that I was shaking from how scared I was during that.

"You're welcome. You've got a rubbish taste in guys, if you don't mind me saying," Cyrus said.

"Are you calling yourself rubbish?" I joked. Cyrus laughed, and Hunter looked up at him, somewhat jealous.

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><p><strong>This chapter would've been out sooner, but I had two exams during the week, and I was getting my hunter cosplay ready for a convention I'm going to Saturday.<strong>

**I hope you like it, and tell me what you think of it.**


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